“He occupied about 890 km this year, and we deoccupied 800,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The Wall Street Journal. The Ukrainian president put the cost to Russia at 270,000 people.
His arithmetic, as he laid it out: the net gain for Moscow across different directions comes to roughly 90 kilometres, “let’s say an additional 100 km over the year.” He set that against earlier years, when Russian forces took about 3,000 to 4,000 kilometres annually. “You can understand the price of 100 km,” he said. “High price. He is neither winning nor losing.”
A front that has stalled
Zelenskyy said almost everything on the battlefield has come to a standstill, whatever the Kremlin leader says about Russian successes. Asked whether he thought Russian generals were failing to tell Vladimir Putin the truth about the situation, he said yes.
He also argued that Putin does not count lost soldiers as a loss, while Russian society pays in lives and money for a hundred kilometres of Ukrainian land. The figures are Zelenskyy’s own and no independent count was cited.
Diplomacy around the interview
The interview came as the UN General Assembly met in New York. On 22 September, at the start of talks with Donald Trump, Zelenskyy said he hoped the US president would help end the war before winter. At the press conference afterwards he said he was ready to meet Putin and that Trump could help arrange a three-way meeting.
Trump said he was prepared to use the Graham Act on sanctions against Russia if necessary. Asked on his way into the Assembly what he would tell Putin, he answered: “Settle the war!”
The Kremlin’s response came from spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said current circumstances do not allow negotiations to move toward peace. He repeated that Zelenskyy could come to Moscow for talks.
Sources
- Zelenskyy: Russia has captured 890 sq km and lost 270,000 people in 2026, Ukraine has liberated 800 sq km
- Zelenskyy: Russia has captured 890 sq km and lost 270,000 people in 2026, Ukraine has liberated 800 sq km
